Cerebral Cortex, Vol. 11, No. 3, 223-237,
March 2001
© 2001 Oxford University Press
The Neural Bases of Sentence Comprehension: a fMRI Examination of Syntactic and Lexical Processing
Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
One of the challenges to functional neuroimaging is to understand how the component processes of reading comprehension emerge from the neural activity in a network of brain regions. In this study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine lexical and syntactic processing in reading comprehension by independently manipulating the cognitive demand on each of the two processes of interest. After establishing a consistency with earlier research showing the involvement of the left perisylvian language areas in both lexical access and syntactic processing, the study produced new findings that are surprising in two ways: (i) the lexical and syntactic factors each impact not just individual areas, but they affect the activation in a network of left-hemisphere areas, suggesting that changing the computational load imposed by a given process produces a cascade of effects in a number of collaborating areas; and (ii) the lexical and syntactic factors usually interact in determining the amount of activation in each affected area, suggesting that comprehension processes that operate on different levels of language may nevertheless draw on a shared infrastructure of cortical resources. The results suggest that many processes in sentence comprehension involve multiple brain regions, and that many brain regions contribute to more than one comprehension process. The implication is that the language network consists of brain areas which each have multiple relative specializations and which engage in extensive interarea collaborations.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  S.L. Rimrodt, A.M. Clements-Stephens, K.R. Pugh, S.M. Courtney, P. Gaur, J.J. Pekar, and L.E. Cutting Functional MRI of Sentence Comprehension in Children with Dyslexia: Beyond Word Recognition Cereb Cortex, June 4, 2008; (2008) bhn092v2. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 C. S. Prat, T. A. Keller, and M. A. Just Individual differences in sentence comprehension: a functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation of syntactic and lexical processing demands. J. Cogn. Neurosci., December 1, 2007; 19(12): 1950 - 1963. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
O Longe, B Randall, E. Stamatakis, and L. Tyler Grammatical Categories in the Brain: The Role of Morphological Structure Cereb Cortex, August 1, 2007; 17(8): 1812 - 1820. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
E. Service, P. Helenius, S. Maury, and R. Salmelin Localization of Syntactic and Semantic Brain Responses using Magnetoencephalography. J. Cogn. Neurosci., July 1, 2007; 19(7): 1193 - 1205. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 S. Amici, S. M. Brambati, D. P. Wilkins, J. Ogar, N. L. Dronkers, B. L. Miller, and M. L. Gorno-Tempini Anatomical Correlates of Sentence Comprehension and Verbal Working Memory in Neurodegenerative Disease J. Neurosci., June 6, 2007; 27(23): 6282 - 6290. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
U. Hasson, H. C. Nusbaum, and S. L. Small Repetition Suppression for Spoken Sentences and the Effect of Task Demands J. Cogn. Neurosci., December 1, 2006; 18(12): 2013 - 2029. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. Fridriksson, K. L. Morrow, D. Moser, and G. C. Baylis Age-Related Variability in Cortical Activity During Language Processing. J Speech Lang Hear Res, August 1, 2006; 49(4): 690 - 697. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
C. Humphries, J. R. Binder, D. A. Medler, and E. Liebenthal Syntactic and semantic modulation of neural activity during auditory sentence comprehension. J. Cogn. Neurosci., April 1, 2006; 18(4): 665 - 679. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
T. Fangmeier, M. Knauff, C. C. Ruff, and V. Sloutsky FMRI evidence for a three-stage model of deductive reasoning. J. Cogn. Neurosci., March 1, 2006; 18(3): 320 - 334. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 H. Duffau, P. Gatignol, E. Mandonnet, P. Peruzzi, N. Tzourio-Mazoyer, and L. Capelle New insights into the anatomo-functional connectivity of the semantic system: a study using cortico-subcortical electrostimulations Brain, April 1, 2005; 128(4): 797 - 810. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
P. C. M. Wong, H. C. Nusbaum, and S. L. Small Neural Bases of Talker Normalization J. Cogn. Neurosci., August 1, 2004; 16(7): 1173 - 1184. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. A. Just, V. L. Cherkassky, T. A. Keller, and N. J. Minshew Cortical activation and synchronization during sentence comprehension in high-functioning autism: evidence of underconnectivity Brain, August 1, 2004; 127(8): 1811 - 1821. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
U. Noppeney and C. J. Price An fMRI Study of Syntactic Adaptation J. Cogn. Neurosci., May 1, 2004; 16(4): 702 - 713. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 G. Fernandez, K. Specht, S. Weis, I. Tendolkar, M. Reuber, J. Fell, P. Klaver, J. Ruhlmann, J. Reul, and C. E. Elger Intrasubject reproducibility of presurgical language lateralization and mapping using fMRI Neurology, March 25, 2003; 60(6): 969 - 975. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. Grossman, A. Cooke, C. DeVita, C. Lee, D. Alsop, J. Detre, J. Gee, W. Chen, M. B. Stern, and H. I. Hurtig Grammatical and resource components of sentence processing in Parkinson's disease: An fMRI study Neurology, March 11, 2003; 60(5): 775 - 781. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
G. R. Kuperberg, P. J. Holcomb, T. Sitnikova, D. Greve, A. M. Dale, and D. Caplan Distinct Patterns of Neural Modulation During the Processing of Conceptual and Syntactic Anomalies J. Cogn. Neurosci., February 1, 2003; 15(2): 272 - 293. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|